


One Last Ride

by MorningTRex26



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Car Sex, Eventual Romance, Lesbian Sex, Long-Distance Relationship, No Lesbians Die, POV Bisexual Character, Queer Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27070918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorningTRex26/pseuds/MorningTRex26
Summary: Kat is a struggling actress, driving for a rideshare company at 24 while waiting for her big break and to find someone to love all of her. What will happen when her app pings and she has no choice but to take one more passenger, a woman named Waverly. Will she be able to remain professional and keep the job she hates but provides a stable income or will she risk it all and cross the line when it becomes obvious the two women are romantically attracted to each other. Kat is still an actress on Wynonna Earp but Dominique is a college professor specializing in Ancient Cultures and Dead Languages. AU that assumes Ray does not exist and I mean no disrespect to the beautiful marriage of Kat and Ray or the friendship Dom and Kat share.
Relationships: Katherine Barrell/Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Waverly Earp & Nicole Haught, Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	One Last Ride

It hadn’t been Kat’s day. It started with a notification from her rideshare app that she had lost a star and was close to losing her status as a luxury-class driver after a particularly horrid Wednesday night. Then she got a text from her ex-boyfriend she broke up with two months ago and still thought he could convince her to come back to his lying, cheating ass. As if that wasn’t enough, she got a text from the girl who ghosted her after two dates and telling her she’s bisexual. I just can’t do it, you understand. Yeah, she understood. That chick was a spineless bitch and she sucked. Kat had been cheated on more times than she could count but had never cheated on anybody, male, female or in between. And she never would. On one hand, it was good that the girl showed her true colors early but it still hurt. It still made her feel like she would never find somebody to love.

She questioned whether she was even worthy of it. 

She just wanted to survive as an actress and have love. But her dreams of the role that would make her a star were as futile as the ones of finding the perfect partner. Lately, she had been thinking that maybe it was time to start submitting herself for queer roles. Her agent had cautioned her against playing gay, especially once her agent found out she was a queer woman. Her professors and drama teachers had cautioned her against playing gay, sometimes even the gay ones.  
Of course, she had spent years going to Catholic schools so she wasn’t sure she could fully trust their advice when it came to the choices she made as a queer woman. The only teacher who had ever told her to take whatever roles fed her soul was the man who ran the youth theater troupe in her hometown. She missed that man and how he could always give her perspective and make her feel worthy. 

She still drove for a top rideshare company and worked odd jobs four years out of college and submitted herself for any role she was remotely qualified for because he had made her believe that she was something special. She should just get a job doing anything but struggling to buy a bottle of wine and a plain hamburger for her dog at the end of the day. Give up on childhood dreams. But she couldn’t shake this voice that told her she was meant to do something big in this life. That she would be one of the few who made it. 

She had classmates living their dreams in Hollywood or New York and it sounded nice but she loved Canada and could never imagine living anywhere but Toronto. No other city came close and she loved her Raptors. And her family lived just west of the city, she couldn’t imagine living far away from them and they couldn’t imagine not being able to see their granddog whenever they wanted. She had built in petsitters who loved her baby as much as she did.  
She was looking up the closest McDonald’s with a drive-thru when her rideshare app pinged.

“I thought I closed that out ten minutes ago,” she said out loud, as if anybody would hear. She had already been reprimanded twice in the past six months for excessive cancellation of rider requests. Lately they had been stricter than they used to and didn’t care about her safety as a woman. If she had to give a ride to a drunken CEO at 2pm whose idea of a tip was giving him a handjob then she was supposed to do it gratefully in the company’s eyes. Maybe for once a passenger would offer to give her a handjob, or at least the female equivalent. Preferably, somebody she would actually want to so such a thing. Was she really that desperate for sex? How long had it been anyway? I just need a release, it’s been a hard week, the depression is settling in, that’s it, she thought to herself as her eyes focused on the name on the screen of her two-generations old iPhone.

Waverly.

It was a pretty name but did anybody ever actually name their child Waverly and expect her to go places? She had a common yet beautiful name. Katherine Genevieve Barrell. Not a name everyone could pull off, but she liked to think that she did. Hey but at least it was an obvious female name and at the rate things were going with the company, likely to be her last ride ever. She was only two miles away and was going twenty-five miles. Normally, she didn’t take fares that went more than five miles but she wasn’t really looking forward to a night with her puppy, Bernie, and her Netflix queue, as much as she loved both those things. She hit the green button to accept then took a sip of her Trenta Starbucks iced coffee with extra cream and a shot of caramel plus caramel drizzle. She could almost convince herself it was an iced caramel latte. Almost. But not quite. And yes, she knew her Starbucks addiction made her a bad Canadian. Heaven forbid anyone find out she wasn’t into hockey either, that she preferred the good ol’ American past times of basketball followed closely by baseball. No wonder she wasn’t making it as an actor in Canada. She was a disgrace to her country, as much as she loved everything else about her homeland.

She glanced at the company provided GPS and then started her black hybrid BMW wagon that had been her college graduation gift from her parents and currently the only thing keeping her from complete poverty. Five minutes later, she arrived outside the Toronto Convention Centre where she saw a more than slightly frazzled woman about her age with glasses, red lips, brown hair pulled into a tight bun and a brown tweed pencil skirt with a partially unbuttoned white silk dress shirt and a big rolling suitcase. 

She had some chunky gold jewelry and a look that said she was annoyed at the world. It was obvious she was trying to look much older than she in fact was but Kat was not fooled one bit. Kat’s eyes tracked the woman’s body unconsciously as she waited for her probable, hopeful fare to notice her. The woman obviously was insanely fit. She was petite but also had well-built muscles. She had a dancer’s body and probably did too much yoga. Not that Kat hated yoga, just there was a time and a place for such things. Besides, she would rather shoot hoops or go on a hike with her dog. Eventually she was rocketed out of her assessment of the sexy, probably completely heterosexual woman who would probably spend the next half hour talking about her latest juice cleanse.

“Hi, uhm, are you Kat,” the woman leaned towards her partially open driver’s side window.

“Yes. Sorry the sun was in my eyes. It’s brutal this time of year.”

“Sure,” the woman shook her head with a knowing glance and its commonly accompanying chuckle. Wait, was she? Could she be? Gay? Or some other form of queer? If she was going to lose her shitty job as a rideshare driver anyway at least she could go out in a blaze of glory and on her terms.

“You must be Waverly. That’s a cool name.”

“Yeah. Yeah that’s me,” she answered as if she forgot her own name. Or maybe it was like a coffee name, one she used for safety on these apps and Kat couldn’t say she blamed her. That she didn’t wish she had a more androgynous nickname or the ability to form one from her name. Instead she had a taser in her glove compartment.

“Here, let me pop the trunk for you,” Kat told Waverly as she hit the button to open the hatchback, “You need help,” she added, as if the other woman didn’t have better muscular definition than she would ever have.

“No. I’m fine,” Waverly replied in her chipper British accent, “I’ll just lift this into the boot.”

“God, you’re cute,” Kat meant to tell her rearview mirror but judging by the slight, “huh,” that she heard from Waverly’s direction, her comment was heard by more than just the mirror. She felt her skin begin to flush with embarrassment until she saw the other woman smile over the back of her car. Waverly didn’t seem to mind one bit, actually it seemed she was blushing too. Kat noticed her skirt ride up a little more than necessary as she slid into her backseat behind her. She watched as her passenger figured out the seatbelt and got comfy.

“You want water? A snack? Need a phone charger,” Kat asked as she channeled every bit of professionalism as she could while in the presence of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

“I know those things cost.”

“No cost. You want some music?”

“I want this day to be over. And the past month to just be wiped from the universe.”

“We have a long drive ahead, we can talk if you want,” Kat told Waverly as she smiled into the rear view mirror but hoped Waverly assumed she was just looking at the traffic.

“You don’t want to hear my problems.”

“You underestimate all the many things I want from you, Waverly,” Kat told her flirtatiously, hoping it wouldn't flop. A sexual harassment strike was the last thing she needed on her record right now.

“Are you some kind of armchair therapist?”

“Pretty close. I’m an actress and a wannabe screenwriter and director.”

“Anything I would know?”

“Not unless you are familiar with Canadian B-style horror movies and obscure indie shorts.”

“Can’t say that I am. Sorry. But I’m sure you are fantastic in them.”

“I don’t know how fantastic I could be since I’ve been a rideshare driver for four years with little to show for myself. My parents love me, my dog loves me—that’s about it.”

“I think it’s kind of romantic. Starving for your art and believing so much in it that you would do anything to make your dreams a reality.”

“Yeah, haven’t been feeling the romance lately. Plus I spend sixty hours a week driving rich people around the city. So I don’t have time to give someone even if I could find somebody who wanted to be with me.”

“Anyone who doesn’t wanna be with you is crazy, Kat.”

“They always find something not to like about me. Something not enough.”

“Are you talking about boyfriends or casting directors?”

“Boyfriends, casting directors and potential girlfriends.”

“Girlfriends,” she exclaimed in a shocked, somewhat questioning tone.

“Yeah, is that gonna be a problem? Just don’t take it out on my rating. I can’t afford another bad rating,” she declared frantically as her anxiety took hold.

“Don’t worry. I don’t have a problem with it. I am too.”

“Am what?”

“You have a reason you need to hear me say it?”

“I just might.”

“I am queer. Oh, and more importantly, I’ve had a crush on you since the moment I saw your car approach. Your eyes with those aviator sunglasses. The way the fading sun brings out the auburn and blonde highlights in your brown hair.”

“You have plans for tonight?”

“No. You?”

“Nothing beyond chilling with my dog, a bottle of wine and some Netflix for the millionth night in a row.”

“You have a dog?”

“Yeah, Bernie. He’s a miniature Australian Shepard and the most adorable dog ever. He’s almost two,” Kat took her phone off the holder stuck to her dash and opened up her camera roll, quickly finding one of her beautiful baby.

“Awww…what a cutie. I love those eyes. And those black spots couldn’t be more perfect.”

“Yeah, he has heterochromia. The breeder dumped him at a rescue because he was undesirable for breeding or a pet, at least in her mind. He hates baths, fireworks and thunder, but otherwise he’s perfect. I tell him every day that his pretty eyes make him special,” when Kat smiled wide and shook her head Waverly could just make out the scars on her driver’s face. She obviously tried to hide them with makeup but they showed anyway, Waverly decided not to point it out though.  
Everybody had something. 

And she had crippling anxiety that had just reared its ugly head in her first presentation at an international conference. And of course, all this happened in front of her hotshot ex-boyfriend, fellow Ancient Cultures scholar, James Harden, and the highest ranked expert in her specialization in Europe, Dead Languages, she slept with when she was eighteen and dumb. The day before, her reservation from Heathrow to Toronto had been lost, then her bags ended up on the wrong flight and the hotel told her they would have to downgrade her to a regular room from a junior suite. Oh, and her heel broke while she was fleeing from the convention center. She would have gone home but she had a job interview at York University tomorrow afternoon for a tenure track position and she promised her mom she would take the train to Montreal and visit for a few days. After her parents’ divorce when she was sixteen, her mother moved back to her hometown of Montreal, leaving her alone in Bristol with her father. Eleven years later, she wanted to reconnect with the mother who had been an ocean apart for so long. Getting this job at York was her one opportunity to do that but still have the space she needed to make her own life. But she would probably clam up and fuck that one up too. Her career was over before it began.

“He’s almost as cute as you,” Waverly replied as she slid the phone onto the center console and watched as Kat slid it back into the holder and opened the navigation app back up.

“I wish I could cancel this ride right now.”

“As in let me out onto the evening streets of Toronto alone or as in you want to do other things with me than drop me off at my intended destination?”

“I could never! Especially not some girl as pretty as you. You are the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. You hungry,” Kat asked as she exited the expressway.

“Yes.”

“You want to get dinner and see where this night takes us?”

“I have an important job interview tomorrow.”

“And I have a car. I’ll take you to your interview. And we won’t get drunk or stay up late,” Kat stated as she looked at Waverly's eyes and knew that was at best a half-truth and at worst the biggest lie she had ever told in an attempt to get a pretty girl into her bed.

“I should really spend as much time as I can practicing so I don’t blow every opportunity I came here for.”

“So, what you’re saying is you would rather blow the opportunity you didn’t come here for? If this isn’t what you want just tell me and I’ll get back on the road, deliver you to your destination and if I ever see you on the street I’ll act like we never met.”

“And if it is? You know, what I want?”

“Then come sit next to me, let me hold your hand and tell me where you want me to take you to dinner.”

“I don’t know if I want you paying for me.”

“Fine, be a liberated woman, you pay for my dinner and I’ll pay for yours.”

“I like that idea.”

“Then come up here.”

Waverly climbed over the center console as Kat held out her hand as she laughed at the petite woman as she internally marveled at the young woman’s flexibility. She intentionally grabbed Waverly’s butt as it passed her hand and heard a giggle followed by a sigh come from her direction. A moment later, she thudded into the seat and straightened up her hair as Kat smirked at her.

“What?”

“You’re somethin’ else, Waverly.”

“It’s Dominique,” she stated as she looked into Kat’s eyes, down to her lips and back to her eyes then waited for the subtle nod and Kat to unbuckle her seatbelt. She reached out her hand and touched Kat’s cheek, running her hand along her jawline and cheekbone then tangling her fingers in her wavy medium length curls as the older woman mirrored the younger one’s movements, waiting for her to make the next move as she felt her heart beating fast and her stomach tighten. She hadn’t even asked for a kiss but now she might die if she didn’t get one in the next thirty seconds. Just as she was about to ask for what she wanted she felt soft lips against her own. She pulled the smaller woman into her lap and deepened the kiss with a hunger and voraciousness she didn’t even know she was capable of as she felt Waverly—sorry Dominique--begin to grind and buck against her leg. She knew if she didn’t pull away then they were seconds from having sex in her car and she wanted more for this amazing girl in her arms than that.

“We should stop,” she gasped through ragged breaths as she pulled away, only for the younger woman to find her breast and start massaging it gently through her black tank top with her red flannel shirt concealing her action from potential onlookers as she sucked on her lower lip. Dominique smiled in satisfaction at Kat’s arousal and erect nipple poking through her tank top. “Baby, this isn’t the way I want it. For you. With you.”

“But you do, want it, right,” Waverly asked with a mixture of shyness and fear.

“Yes, baby. Yes! More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I thought I was gonna die if you didn’t kiss me when I first felt your hands on my face.”

“I just didn’t want to be too forward, if you wanted. If you didn’t want,” Dominque looked down and tried to hide her face from Kat, hoping she hadn’t made yet another life-shattering blunder today.  
“We can take this however you want. I’m not expecting anything from you. If I drop you off tomorrow and you leave me with nothing but beautiful memories then I’ll find a way to be okay. This doesn’t have to be love.”

“Do you hope it can become love?”

“Have you looked at yourself lately, Dominique,” Kat asked.

“I’m a mess. Why would you want to fall for me,” Dominque retorted.

“Cause I’m a mess too. Cause you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You make me grateful that I decided to turn on this miserable app and drive downtown today when it was the last thing I wanted to do. Cause you are as sweet as you taste,” Kat asserted as she dove in for another sweet kiss as she tried to hold back the heat burning through her.

“You think that’s sweet, darling? You should experience how I really taste,” Dominique replied once their lips unlocked.

“Are you sure that’s what you want? You don’t have to.”

“I want you to.”

“How am I going to concentrate on dinner when I know what’s for dessert, baby?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way. Do you want—”

“More than you know and for longer than I’ll ever admit. Do you like Italian?”

“Love it. But I am vegan so—”

“No Veal Parmigiana then, got it. Sounds like Italian is the perfect choice then. I almost suggested my favorite chop house but then I dunno, it just didn’t feel right once I felt your body against mine and your tongue in my mouth.”

“That’s not the only place my tongue is going to be tonight, darling.”

“You are gonna be the death of me, sweetcakes.”

“Yes, but what a way to go,” Dominique responded as she clicked her seat belt and ran her fingers across her smudged dusty pink lipstick.

“Yeah, you’re right what a way to go indeed,” Kat answered as she cancelled the ride and deleted the app off her phone. She knew the consequences for what she had just done and agreed to do. However, looking at Dominique’s smile she didn’t care one bit. She would figure out a way to make it work without the rideshare app. As she drove towards her favorite Italian place in Toronto, the one with the lakefront view where she could gaze into her new lover’s eyes over candlelight and carbs, with Dominique’s hand squeezing her thigh she felt like she was driving into the next and greatest chapter of her life.

****************  
A Year Later

Kat was exhausted as she climbed the stairs to her suburban Toronto split-level townhouse but she had never been so excited to get home. She heard the jangle of Bernie’s collar and his feet on the stairs, once the most welcome sound she had ever heard but now she waited for it to become a symphony until she heard scratching at the door and knew she couldn’t put off opening the door any longer. She tried her best to put on an excited smile and she had missed him like crazy. She had been gone in Calgary shooting a role as a lesbian cop on a supernatural television show for nearly seven months. She had never left him for so long before but she knew this was the role of a lifetime. She could feel it when she read the script and then when she stepped foot on set. She searched for her key in her coat pocket and listened as the jingle of her keychains matched with that of the tags on his collar.

“Hey, baby boy, you miss mommy? Huh,” she asked as her furbaby went crazy, jumping around as if he didn’t have a backbone, “Oh you are such a wild boy, you are so wild, Bernie,” she cooed as she knelt down and he jumped into her arms and thoroughly licked her face. Not the kisses she wanted or had been expecting to greet her when she finally made it home, but still wonderful.

“You’re home, darling! You’re early,” a voice exclaimed as her girlfriend walked out of the kitchen in tight grey leggings, a long sleeved light purple shirt and a black apron.

“There you are, baby. I was worried maybe you weren’t here. That this and him and my crazy life as an actress got to be too much for you, Dom.”

“You really thought that? Oh, darling. I could never leave you. And I love Bernie like my own son. I just had my headphones in and was dancing in the kitchen making you a special dinner. Or did you forget?”

Kat kissed Bernie on the top of his head and signaled for him to go lay down on his bed in the living room before getting up and pulling her girlfriend into her arms, “Baby, I could never forget the night we met or all the things we did that night in my bed.”

“And on your couch and against this very door,” she teased as she pressed the taller woman into the door and began pulling up her shirt.

“Did you miss me?”

“Isn’t it obvious,” she teased as she kissed between Kat’s breasts and her fingers lazily danced across her body.

“No.”

“You really mean that, Katherine?”

“Oooo, babe, you’re pulling out the Katherine card?”

“Yup, I am,” she declared as she raked her nails across her girlfriend’s soft skin, feeling her ribs jutting from her sides, “What were they feeding you out there in Calgary?”

“It was lots of long days and more physical stunts than I ever thought I‘d have to do. But I loved it. It was so fun!”

“Oh, well. Guess I’ll just have to fatten you up then. And we can talk all about it over dinner. I have other things I want to do with my tongue right now,” Dominique told Kat as her eyes burned into her girlfriend’s crotch and her mouth began to water from the memory of her taste.

“Do you really think I’m going to let you do that after you scared me to death? I really thought you left me. That you weren’t here. Or you were but you had changed your mind about us,” Kat started to rub the jagged ends of the keys in her hand to stop herself from falling apart until Dom gently took them from her palm and set them on the entryway hutch where the mail and Bernie’s dog park treats and toys were kept.

“I could never and will never change your mind about us. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you,” she unlatched Kat’s button and pushed her tight jeans off her hips as the taller woman with long dyed red hair gulped for air as she let Dom push her down on the nearby stairs. She watched as Dom untied the apron still around her waist. Kat reached out her long arm and ripped her girlfriend’s shirt off.

“Mmmm…no bra, you naughty girl. Naughty, naughty.”

“Why don’t you spank me then, Daddy.”

“Oh, you know what it does when you call me that,” she teased as she slapped the younger woman on her ass, “No underwear either.”

“Took you long enough. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were getting some with one of your co-stars in Calgary.”

“The only time I got some in Calgary was that long weekend you visited during your term break.”

“What about that week you got off and you took me to dinner at your parents’ house and while they were distracted by their granddog we had sex in your childhood bedroom?”  
“I thought we agreed to never speak of that,” Kat teased as she ran her nail along the underside of Dom’s fingers and palm.

“Yeah cause evidently your Catholic parents have a rule about premarital sex in their house, even when it’s their adult daughter.”

“Hey, but at least they said the rules would be the same if your name were Dominic and you were a guy who I was in love with,” Kat asserted as she tried to make sense of her parents’ most ridiculous rule because she loved them almost as much as she loved having sex with her girlfriend. And she liked that a lot. Really a lot.

“Yeah, and besides your mom really likes me. She came over a bunch of times while you were gone. She would always say it was to see Bernie but every time she’d either show up with a casserole or a cake.”

“Yeah, maybe don’t remind me that my mama likes you when I’m staring at your naked boobs. Or about my mom at all.”

“Aren’t they nice, baby? Don’t you wanna do more than stare,” Dominique teased as she massaged her own breasts.

“Okay, that’s enough get over here,” she commanded as she pulled the smaller woman on top of her and felt her kisses down her neck as her hand made it’s way down from her breasts to her center. She groaned as her body responded to her touch. A touch that was more familiar than she could ever have imagined it would be. Although they had been together exactly a year down to the perfectly timed minute since their first kiss, they had only spent around twenty-four days out of that year together. 

They spent the night after Dominique’s interview together before she caught the plane to Montreal and then flew back from there to London, only to get offered the job at York two weeks later and a week after that for Kat to get offered an audition in Calgary. A little over two months later, Dominique moved into her townhouse and Kat asked her to be her girlfriend. All was perfect for a moment until she got the news that she got the role and had five days to get to Calgary. 

They had spent all of sixteen days total together before Dom dropped her off at the airport.

This hadn’t been part of either one of their plans but somehow, they had made it. There had been a lot of randomly timed phone sex and hurried text messages between teaching or takes. But here they were as Dom’s head dipped between her legs and she let her girlfriend know exactly how much she had missed her. Kat grabbed at the stairs and threw her head back in ecstasy and ran her finger through her lover’s light brown flowing mess of curls.

Kat gave her everything she had but knew it could never be enough. They were interrupted by the oven timer way too soon.

“Guess I better get that, wouldn’t want to ruin my sweetheart’s special anniversary dinner.”

“But then I would have to let you up and your body feels so good. I’ve never missed anyone or anything the way I missed you and those sexy legs of yours. And all the things that mouth does to me,” she teased as she planted a slow kiss to Dom’s lips.

“I worked hard on this dinner, baby. You’ll love it.”

“I never thought I would look forward to coming home to a vegan dinner.”

“Just say it, Kat-herrr-iiinnn-eee.”

“You’re right, Laura Dom-ooonnn-i-qqqqu-eee I’ll love it.”

“And I have a special surprise for after dinner.”

“Tell me it’s lingerie, oh please, baby, tell me its lingerie.”

“Haven’t you seen enough of me in that over the past few months?”

“Me, never. I’m kinda totally into that, especially on you, sweetcakes.”

“Okay, my bestest baby. There’s some involved but that alone is not enough of a surprise for my beautiful baby who is about to be ridiculously famous.”

“I doubt it. Like who is going to watch some queer little low-budget supernatural show with no-name Canadian actors?”

“I’ve been behind the scenes. It’s gonna be big and you are amazing, even if you do have to kiss a girl who isn’t me.”

“It’s just a paycheck, baby.”

“I know. I got us new robes. Shall we?”

“Yes,” Kat watched as her girlfriend went to the kitchen and bent over the oven still wet and swollen from their earlier encounter on the stairs. “You are just doing that to antagonize me, aren’t you?”

“Is it working,” she teased as she slid the lasagna out of the oven.

Kat had to admit it smelled amazing. 

Of course, the few times she had experienced her girlfriend’s cooking it had been mouthwatering to say the least. She never thought vegan food could taste so good until Dominique surprised her with homemade pumpkin curry the day after she moved to Toronto. She was looking forward to a lifetime of asking, ‘is this really vegan,’ then the love of her life’s nose scrunching as she laughed and said, ‘yes, you silly,’ with that big smile of hers and in her sexy British accent. She hoped Dominique wanted that too. That this wasn’t just scrumptious dinners and mindblowing sex. 

They were only barely twenty-seven but they knew this was what they had always been meant for and who they were meant for, at least that’s what it seemed in those video chats over their phones over the past year. But Dominique hadn’t had many experiences with love or life. 

Kat was worried she might miss out on something, not that the years of dead-end shitty jobs, fruitless dating and biphobia had benefitted her any. She was certain nobody could ever love her the way her petite British dancer turned college professor could.

Kat watched her girlfriend with covert protectiveness as she slowly pulled the heavy, hot glass baking dish from the oven. She knew Dom hated being seen as some damsel in distress and she understood but she couldn’t help herself. Protectiveness and care for others was just in her nature. She twirled around after she slid the dish onto the counter with that knowing smirk that she got sometimes then came over with the warm potholder still in her hand and whipped Kat’s shoulder with it.

“You were watching me again, weren’t you baby,” she asked with a voice that was somehow both stern and sultry.

“Nooo, of course not, babe. I know you got it. I believe in my baby and her strong arms.”

Dom stepped closer to Kat’s face and traced her lips with her index finger, “Katherine Genevieve Barrell, don’t. you. lie,” she paused and quickly gave Kat a peck on the lips, “to me.”

“You know I can’t help it.”

“I might be somewhat aware of that after our year together but I haven’t flown back to England yet, so obviously I don’t hate it that much.”

“I hope you never buy another one-way plane ticket in your life, honey,” Kat replied as her eyes welled up with tears and Dom wiped them away then pulled her lover close to her body.

“Oh, baby, baby. Kat, honey. My love, I’m sorry that hit a nerve. I’ll never bring it up again. Well, unless I mean it. You need a shower before dinner?”

“Do I have time,” Kat asked as she tipped her head slightly from her lover’s breast.

“The lasagna needs to sit for at least twenty minutes,” Dominque replied as she ran her fingers through Kat’s hair, rubbing the spot where her hair ended on her back before she rubbed upwards again.

“Will you join me?”

“Is that even a question,” Dominique lovingly asked as she took her lover’s eyes and led her by the hand upstairs to their bathroom. 

After a rejuvenating shower that turned into slow dance under the water and a long lingering four course lasagna dinner and more than a few glasses of red wine the two curled up on the couch and made out for a while until Dominique turned on the tv and started the slide show she had created with some help from Kat’s parents of her growing up and ending with the video they took in the airport the morning she left for Calgary of them hugging and crying, promising their love would be made even stronger by the time apart and that Kat needed to live her dreams.

“And baby, we didn’t know how prophetic that statement would be. We’ve had to work twice as hard as any other couple to make it work. And look at us. We made it. It seemed so impossible every time we had to watch the other one walk into the secured area of the Toronto airport, never quite knowing if the promises would be kept once life took over. Since the night we met I’ve never stopped thinking about you. Every time your face pops up on my phone I can’t press accept call fast enough. I know I could never love anybody like I love you. And there’s nobody I want to spend the rest of my life with no matter what. I would go anywhere and do anything for you and for Bernie. I want us to be a family. I want to call you my wife. Will you do me the honor, Katherine Genevieve Barrell? I know our life isn’t easy and we’ll spend a lot of time apart but the time we do have I cherish. Will you marry me, baby?”

“Of course I will. As long as you’re sure you want to be my wife. We just found out we got picked up for a second season already and the show isn’t even in post-production and there will always be long hours and unpredictable schedules and press.”

“As long as the show makes you happy and keeps you from doing a job you hate I will be there by your side through it all as much as you want me to be.”

“Did you ask my father?”

“Yes, I did. And I talked to mine because I didn’t want you to know and he says he wants to figure out a time and place we can all meet soon. But he told me if she makes you happy, she has my blessing.”

“What about Bernie?”

“You’ve seen how he is with me. But you can ask him yourself if you want.”

Kat looked over at her furbaby sleeping in his open crate with one paw over his latest bully stick then back at Dominique’s hopeful face, “Nah, I don’t think he’ll mind having two mommies.”

Dominique scooted a stack of books on a nearby end table and found where she had hidden a blue velvet ring box. She opened it slowly and smiled as she placed the simple yet elegant ring on her now fiance’s finger then the two kissed until they could barely breathe. They went from strangers to soon-to-be wives and Kat had never been more grateful she chose to take one more passenger that night last year. Her life was beyond her wildest imagination and this sweet, sometimes sassy woman in her arms had everything to do with it.

**Author's Note:**

> This topic was suggested and encouraged by the ladies in my Kat Barrell Facebook group chat, this story is dedicated to them, especially my orignial Earper sister, Lynn. Love you all and my life would suck without you, truly.


End file.
